LOL are you kidding me, where were the first half of the season... When Dragic was sucking.. And Lowry was being talked about for an All-Star Selection. Now that Lowry is injured. and Dragic is playing somewhat good. These guys are ready to ship Lowry off... The truth of the matter is... whenever Dragic has a bad game. He doesnt get called out for it like Lowry does
I will never understand those that are afraid to pay the going rate for players, if Dragic is worth $6 million, why not pay it? The better teams keep their assets, at least that way if you do need to make a trade you have some decently priced contracts to throw into the mix. You can't win anything with value contracts - most of those guys are on value contracts because they are not really all that good. Some are the exception - Lowry being one, but most are just average NBA players. As for the Brooks comparison, it is absolutely apt, Brooks got hurt (he was playing great he had 19 points in that first half btw) and Lowry came on and really improved, at no point had he EVER shown he could shoot that well, and he showed he actually got better with consistent minutes that starters get. Sound familiar? Dragic is performing a lot better than Lowry or Brooks so far, if he keeps it up, he keeps the job, IMO. Dragic is taller, more athletic, quicker, and does everything Lowry does well about the same and some things Lowry doesn't do well a lot better. I would love for Dragic to start and Lowry go back to being his energy self off the bench. DD
Going to have to trade one. Both of their values have to be pretty high right now, let's maximize one and swear by the other.
DaDakota > you get a lot of crap here but this i think was very well written and to the point (actually signed in to reply) i just usually just read.. but i think in these last four games it is obvious that they formed a "team" where everybody touches the ball and not just launching 3's and leaving guard to get rebounds. it should be interesting to see what comes out of this.. to have two guys this caliber is one helluva bargaining chip.
Another option would be to trade Lowry on draft night for a high lottery pick (given weak PG crop this year), and lock up Dragic this summer, along with possibly bringing over Llull. BTW here's list of teams in the top part of the lottery in need of a elite PG: N.Orleans Hornets, Toronto Raptors, Sacramento Kings, Portland Trailblazers.
DD makes a good point, I do like the fact that dragic is taller and more athletic, and can finish around the rim, lowry has really improved his shooting especially the 3s, but he just doesn't have that penetrating ability dragic does, a good amount of the time kyle just jumps up into the defender and flops hoping to get a call instead of concentrating on an "and 1", the offense is has been moving the ball brilliantly these last few games. It's too early to make the call and I would have to see what happens leading up to and when Kyle gets back to make a final decision. If I had to decide now its a toss-up leaning towards kyle but that could change. If dragic performs well these next 2 weeks, we could see kyle (and probably martin) moved during the draft, usually when the best deals are made imo. This is from someone that is a big klow7 fan
Unfortunately one of them will have to go. We don't have enough talent to be that deep at point and not get something for one of them.
Yes that is a good option as well and one I didn't consider. Which make me believe there are even other options that I am not aware of and Morey has got covered. he is just too smart to not know all his options in keeping Dragic. And I can't believe any of those options include allowing Dragic to walk for nothing.
Again, you don't trade Lowry just to make space for Dragic. Lowry isn't Aaron Brooks, he's not a freaking salary dump. I think you approach the offseason trade market with the attitude of, "Can I get fair value for Lowry--e.g. an all-star caliber player at a different position--and if I do, will Dragic sign an extension?" I think you only trade Lowry if it makes the team better. It's nice to have a guy in Dragic who we have the inside track on if it becomes necessary to trade Lowry.
Does anyone else think that we should have traded Lowry/Martin/Hill for Gasol/Fisher + two 1st rd picks? Lakers would have done it.
Take out Lowry and put in Dragic instead, then you have a deal You are basically trading a young stud PG for 2 older players
Lakers do not seem to want the draft picks. They tossed away 2 of them this trade deadline. And I think that was looking at the fact that draft picks will cost them 4 times as much as anyone else with the new CBA. But I do believe Gasol will be available this summer. And they would be willing to give him away for youth.
That is what I suspect. There has to be a reason that we saved the Lakers $6 million by taking on Fish. He's useless here. And taking the pick relieves them of more salary besides. I think we helped them because in exchange they are going to agree to let us continue to help them this summer take down their salary further by completing Gasol for Lowry/Scola...if we want to do it. There is no other logical explanation for pulling that Fish trade.
Signing guys who are eminently replaceable to long term mid-level deals is the best way to completely hamstring a team down the line. Morey has already proven he can easily find contributing role players with late picks and shrewd trades; why pay them market price when the Rockets can get them for a fraction of that? I call BS on not being able to win with value contracts; the two greatest values are in rookie scale deals and max contracts. If you get too many mid-level deals cluttering up your cap flexibility, you can never afford the max guys that are critical to building a contender. I like Dragic, and Lee, but there's dozens of historical precedents to show that they're just not worth $5M+ per year. Just for fun, here's a selection of 4 players' per 36 stats for their 4th year in the league. Two of them are current Rockets. Two of them were extended for "market value" by their team at the mid-level. Guess who's who: Code: FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% FT FTA FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS 5.3 11.9 .445 1.2 3.7 .316 2.4 3.2 .759 0.9 2.6 3.5 6.4 1.6 0.2 3.1 3.3 14.2 5.7 12.3 .463 0.9 2.4 .387 2.2 2.5 .850 0.6 3.2 3.8 4.9 1.0 0.2 2.6 2.4 14.4 5.0 11.2 .447 1.8 4.2 .414 1.5 1.8 .830 0.4 2.8 3.2 1.8 1.4 0.4 1.2 1.9 13.2 5.4 12.1 .444 1.6 4.0 .398 2.7 3.2 .820 1.0 3.0 4.0 2.7 1.5 1.2 2.0 3.6 15.0 Spoiler 1. Goran Dragic 2. Beno Udrih 3. Courtney Lee 4. Francisco Garcia Worked out quite nicely for the Kings and their player-friendly GM, Geoff Petrie, right?
lmao, even this stretch of games by Dragic can't compare to Lowry during his stretch of good games. He's literally worse across the board in all stats compared to Lowry's good stretches.
Dragic is definitely not better than Lowry. He's putting slightly better numbers than what Lowry does on a constant basis. And the games he started in were against poor quality teams. Don't get me wrong, I think he's really good and what we're seeing out of him is how he can help win on a consistent basis. I think in the offseason, in the case of who to sign in between our free agents, he should be the top priority with an intent on grooming him to start at SG. Think about it, he can play SG really well. I honestly think a Lowry and Dragic is our best backcourt, so why not make that full time. We just got to trade Martin.
Lowry is better than Dragic it is as simple as that. Listen, we all know Dragic has played well in the games he has started but the sample size is way too small. I am not sure we will be able to sign dragic and in all honesty it doesn't matter. We have our starting PG and its lowry.
